Martha's Vineyard Class of 2011 Graduates

The sky may have been gloomy, but the future looked bright for the 166 Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School students who graduated Sunday afternoon in front of a packed crowd at the Martha’s Vineyard Camp Meeting Association Tabernacle. 

The nearly two-hour ceremony brought plenty of hoots, hollers and highlights—including a surprise musical performance by the principal Stephen Nixon—as well as somber reflections on the magnitude of the day.

“Right now, we feel the same. It’s only much later, when we are different, that we will look back and recall this day as momentous,” said class essayist Kira Shipway.

Speaking not just to the graduating students, but to the hundreds who packed the Tabernacle pews, Superintendent of Martha’s Vineyard Public Schools Dr. James Weiss appropriated the now-famous turn-of-phrase ”It takes a village to raise a child.”

“It takes an Island to educate a student,” said Dr. Weiss. “And here on Martha’s Vineyard, you are very fortunate to have that Island community work with you in reaching this important moment.”

“Our Island community works hard for the students’ families to weather the trying times, to offer outreach for students and to share in the joy when that student succeeds,” said Dr. Weiss. “Our island is like one big neighborhood, watching over your collective youth as they journey to adulthood.”

Student Council President Rachel Pires echoed that theme. “I can’t think of any other place an entire community would come together to . . . year after year donate almost three-quarters of a million dollars to its graduating seniors,” or attend the school’s annual honors ceremony, said Pires.

This year’s graduating class featured co-valedictorians, Mary Harrington and Sarah Johnson, for the firs time in 27 years. Though Harrington was not in attendance, both she and Johnson were honored by Dr. Weiss with the Outstanding Student Award.

Johnson used her speech to reflect on the leap away from the Island community that so many graduates will now take.

“Islanders tend to categorize MVRHS graduates into two groups: Those that are able to adjust to the world outside of high school and off-Island, and those that can’t adjust and end up coming back.”

“Parents, teachers and friends express hope that we are part of the first group, that we are able to adjust,” said Johnson. An extended stay in India had taught her that it was far too easy to adjust to the real world and leave your past behind, said Johnson. She instead urged students not simply to adjust to the outside world, but to adjust a part of that world to themselves.

In a fine example of the uniqueness that is life on the Vineyard—that “inside” world separate from the rest to which Johnson referred— principal Stephen Nixon said he would treat the students to something no other principal had ever done: an acoustic performance of Rod Stewart’s classic “Forever Young.” The performance drew rousing applause.

In addition to Johnson and Harrington, four other students received commendations. Rykerr Maynard was the recipient of the Devon E. Bayne Memorial Scholarship; Alexander Jernegan and Elsie Fantasia, the Vineyarder Award; and Pires, the Principal’s Award.

Principal Nixon offered a moment of silence for recently deceased teachers Joyanne (Joy) Flanders and Arthur Cormier, and a round of applause for retiring teachers Bill McGrath, Dianne McDonough-Silva, Scott Campbell and Annette Sandrock.